


71 137 37 137 37 151 - Part III

by Karma77



Series: 71 137 37 137 37 151 [3]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Alien Biology, Aliens, Bugs & Insects, F/M, Original Character(s), Pokemon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:00:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28464960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karma77/pseuds/Karma77
Summary: The third and penultimate part of a series of short stories detailing the interactions between a researcher, and a curious, dubiously intelligent insectoid from another world.
Series: 71 137 37 137 37 151 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2084529
Kudos: 1





	71 137 37 137 37 151 - Part III

"What is she... doing?"

Adrian muttered quietly to himself. He was resting his elbows on the metal table before him, fingers knitted together with his nose resting just above them. He used one of his knuckles to push his glasses up, his eyes staring through the glass pane above the table. Standing up, Adrian paced around the observation chamber. He frequently had to turn on his heel as the room was scarcely bigger than a walk in closet. He turned his gaze to the many sheets of paper scattered across the table, and reached out to grab one. More forcefully than he'd intended, causing a few sheets to fly off and drift to the floor. He didn't care though - he needed to check the results. He pored over the columns of text, studying each result. 137, 31, 151... the standard for those areas. Ridiculous on most any other specimen but standard for her. But... that part wasn't right. Or that. Over the past few days, results had been erratic, fitting the specimens' actions. Adrian sighed, dropping the paper carelessly. He knew this all already.

He'd read the results of that particular test, as well as the many others he'd done over the previous week, dozens of times. He was beginning to memorize certain parts even. The numbers were chaotic, patternless and 'hysterical'. Those words suited the specimen themselves perfectly. Adrian placed his hand against the observational glass, something he'd normally never do out of propriety if nothing else. Being 'proper' didn't matter right now. He observed the specimen beyond and it - Ah. Hell to it, he thought. Calling 'it' a 'specimen' didn't feel right to him anymore. *She* was on her knees in the center of the chamber below.

Normally she seemed to take up a large portion of wherever she was. Standing at least six feet and impossibly thin, with 'skin' like porcelain in both color and texture. She looked like some sort of humanoid stick bug, with limbs thinner than they should be on someone a foot shorter, and longer than someone a foot taller. The legs that constituted almost half of her height, normally kept stretched out even while she sat, now had their forelegs pressed against the floor. Her knees, padded with some sort of thick golden chitin, supported her. Her hips occasionally moved up as if she was preparing to drag herself forward, before pulling back - her entire torso moving with them. The organic discs that covered her torso - reminiscent of skirts, spinning tops and dress hems - were pulled down flatter than usual. Occasionally they twitched or flared, but always recovered in a fraction of a second. Her forearms were pressed to the ground similar to her legs, the several claw like digits that made up her 'hands' idly scratching the floor and creating a sickly scraping like metal against rust.

Purple pinprick pupils staring at the ground were no longer giving that in-control look they usual did. Discoloration had formed beneath them. The massive wings that spanned her body no longer formed into one behind her. They were split, arched and twitching, like a dying insect. Adrian looked on, solemnly. He softly whispered to himself. 'Pheromosa... pheromosa...'. Her biology was too alien for him to really tell much about her condition - it was like... withdrawal. It... couldn't have been some sort of sickness, she'd never just 'gotten sick'. Adrian had no reason to believe her kind did. But if she did. Then he'd know no way to help her. No one would... 

But he had an idea.

The chamber door slammed shut behind him forcefully. Adrian brushed the sash at his side, on which sat a leather bag, the surface of which was riddled with spherical bulges. They moved as the contents inside 'clacked' audibly like dozens of marbles. He made his way down the metal steps to the chamber floor, moving with a more frantic pace than he'd have been bold enough to keep just weeks before. Pheromosa just shook on her knees and elbows, her white body having lost some of the purity it once had. Adrian's pace slowed as he approached the unsteady form but he didn't falter. He stood over her form - almost longer than he was tall - and lowered to a knee beside her head. Her head did not turn, though her pinprick irises stared out of the corner of her eyes. She didn't move.

Adrian raised his hand from his knee and slid it - open palmed - beneath Pheromosa's head. His thoughts were singular; "Please don't cut my head off."

The insect twisted it's head to the side and rubbed - pressed, her cheek into his hand. Her hips pulled back and her thighs along with them, her spine arching to keep her head in position. Her claw fingers stopped scraping the ground and pulled up, curling together as every muscle and fiber inside them contracted. Her small mouth opened as if to let out a rattling breath though no sound came, and her eyes scrunched closed. The bug's knees raised and her hips came along, forcing her body to bear its weight on her arms and his hand. It prefered the latter. Adrian's hand was forced down by the pressure, and he struggled to keep it off the ground. Though she was far lighter than any human would be at her size, she could still apply much weight when she wanted to. Her wings gently beat.

Pheromosa fell onto her side. A single of her rail thin arms and dextrous legs each supported her, but her landing still kicked up a small cloud of dirt. The insectoid writhed a bit, more rhythmically and dramatically than the shaking of the previous days. The arm not below her lifted into the air and clawed at it, and her knee lifted to her core as it's foreleg gave a few kicks - fortunately not in Adrian's direction. Her mouth lay slightly open, though if she could have made a sound, she wouldn't have. Her eyes opened again, the space below them still discolored and her pupils still small, but with a less... stressed, look to them. He was really glad about that; in her current position, her eyes were the thing making her look 'jittery but okay', and not 'dead in her shell'

Adrian smiled. The quicker-than-reflex contractions of her claws had made him more appreciative of the head still on his shoulders. "I don't... really know what's going on with you. But I can try to comfort you. I think we're on those terms-" He reached for his belt and withdrew a cloudy pink ball from within "-Do you want a can-"

It happened in a sudden burst of movement. Lashing out an arm, the bug's claw fingers swatted the candy from Adrian's fingers. The sharp inner edges barely made contact with the thing, but thoroughly cut through any part that did, forming a gash filled with what looked like pink foam. The blunt back end hit most of it, causing a small dent in the area it made contact with before it was swatted away. With great speed it went spinning from the two of them. Adrian's chest moved back reflexively - reflexes that triggered in about twice the time it took Pheromosa to lash her entire arm. Once she was done with that, the bug lifted her legs to support her again, before leaping up at Adrian head-first. The entire leap had little force to it, but it had much speed; by the time she made contact, Adrian had reflexively pulled his arms back, and left himself open. Head at his chest, body over his legs, claws beside his throat.

Pheromosa hugged Adrian's neck. Her weight wasn't entirely borne on his shoulders though; she let her core rest on his legs, her upper body and legs lifting so that she could lay in his lap. She made sure to bare all the weight of her head against his chest though - he could support that. She lifted her meter long legs up, pressing her knees against her torso and curling her forelegs in so that they almost tucked under his arm. All this movement all this weight all this... all this, in a few seconds if not less. If it was anyone else they would've whipped Adrian around, if they hadn't already knocked him over after leaping onto him with the full weight of their body. But not Pheromosa. Her kinesthetic sense, her elegance, that - that great control that allowed her to fling herself against walls and dig her knees into stone that... that.

Adrian gasped sharply as the air was knocked from his lungs and his neck was pulled forward. He would've been knocked prone if not for some... counterweight that he suddenly felt, pulling and shifting to keep him perfectly upright against the inertia. As he was recovering from that blur of motion, he found that said counterweight was now curled up in his lap and holding tight to his body. Adrian took a moment to recover and gave the insect an unsure stare. The hand that had moments before been grasping candy now moved to rub the girl's cheek - something she leaned into less energetically than she had before. It seemed like she was more concerned - and far more content - with other things at that moment.

"I'm... you're. You're completely unbelievable." Adrian paused to brush Pheromosa by the crown of spikes forming at the top of her head. "Anyways. I... figured you had some sort of illness, but, I don't think that's true." He wiped his finger across a discolored spot beneath her eye. She looked happy, but was still quite sickly. "I think... it's... 'homing sickness'. I don't know too much about your species' ecology but I think you might migrate. Like birds or - well - insects. If you take an insect in the west, and bring it to the east, it'll instinctively try to migrate at the same time the bugs on the west do, even if it's summer where it is now." He paused. "I've handled a few homing animals; they act... strangely if they can't migrate. Usually for no apparent reason, just because their internal clocks 'go off'. They act erratic and, they can start getting physically ill."

"But they don't usually... die. Small ones sometimes, mostly tiny insects; but the bigger ones don't." Adrian chuckled to himself. "I'd... say you classify as a bigger one. Just about. And, sometimes, they... when they..." Adrian trailed off. He checked himself.

The researcher brushed his coat back around his shoulders, fixing his hair and pushing his glasses up awkwardly. He looked down at the form in his lap, purple eyes gazing widely up at him as the occasional twitch or spasm racked part of her form. There was a lot in those purple irises. A bit of stress, an underlying sharpness, quickness. But he didn't think he saw... 

"Why am I telling you this? Maybe I'm just... telling it to myself..." Adrian said with a slight smile, a hint of sadness there. "You don't... know what it means. You're not intelligent; you've just got a human form. Well, humanoid. Your mind isn't familiar to this world. It's an alien one. But it's not 'sapience'. You don't understand what I'm... what I'm-"

Pheromosa acted. She broke the lock her claws had formed together behind his back, pulled her arms away from Adrian and pushed her legs out onto the ground beside him. Kicking off of the ground she half spun half fell off of him. She landed sharply on her 'hands' and 'feet', facing the ground, and scuttled quickly away. Adrian was confused - as Pheromosa always managed to make him, no matter how close they got - and almost fell over, supporting himself with his hands flat on the ground behind his back. Pheromosa frantically scuttled about, occasionally rising onto her legs in a brief dash before lowering to the ground again soon after. She snatched at the earth below, kicking up dust as her claw scraped the floor and her heel like foot claw skidded during sudden turns. Was she... okay?

The insect suddenly lifted her head up one moment, the limbs precisely pulling her body along immediately halting. It was vaguely reminiscent of a machine turning off, but no machine could stop so fully so instantly. A mantis, or a spider; the only comparisons. Holding her hands just below her chest she dashed towards Adrian, almost collapsing a few feet before him as her limbs once again halted. A small cloud of brownish dust she'd kicked up lagged behind her, thinning into a mist beneath her now stopped heels before dissipating entirely. While Adrian was silent throughout the entire display, he felt it appropriate to speak up now. He made sure to be tactful.

"What?"

Undeterred, Pheromosa stretched her arms from her chest, and what little she could hold against her chest with her stick thin limbs fell to the ground. A series of... rocks. And a small slide of gravel. The rocks varied slightly in size and shape but they were mostly circular and marble sized. Her purple irises looked at Adrian expectantly. "Err. Thank you?" He responded simply. There was a pause. The insectoid... looked down. She wore a face that seemed almost... disappointed, and the lethargic way she held her eyes returned. The discoloration of her eyes and the dust now covering her porcelain body added a touch of distress to her appearance. But... she knew what to do.

Pheromosa was frantic in the next few moments. Rapidly she snatched her hands down, claws that could easily cut stone - and strength which could easily leave craters in it - tempered to carefully... move pebbles. She shooed them with the blunter ends of her makeshift fingers, pushing them along to coalesce into piles. She took a particular liking to eight specific rocks and pushed them into three piles. Four in one, two in the two others. She even managed to scoop some of the dirt she'd accidentally brought along and dust it across the space between the piles. She paused as she saw that everything was 'in place' - though in place for what, Adrian had no clue. She then pressed the tip of her long claw finger into the dust and swiped it across the dust piles. It... formed a rough slash like shape. Two rocks, slash, two rocks, line, four rocks.

Adrian furrowed his brows at... all this. That earned a few more shades of distress across the insectoid's face. The top of her eyes pinched slightly and her irises became more jagged, her movements frantic as she rapidly brushed the dust. Adrian was concerned. Was she... okay? Was this some... instinct, some habit he just didn't understand? He didn't want to distress her by not 'reciprocating' - whatever that implied. He just didn't know how. He'd never seen any sort of creature do this but it was not... too out of the ordinary for some sort of ritual. It'd be out there for any creature on earth, but this was no regular creature... no... regular... wait. He had an idea. It was an out there idea. A wild idea he didn't think would ever be the actual answer; but he had an idea.

Adrain slowly reached his hand out. As he did so Pheromosa's frantic clawing slowed a bit, seemingly not wanting to accidentally brush Adrian as he reached out but still eager to do... whatever she was doing. He tapped the first pile of two rocks, then the second pile of two rocks, then the fourth. He went to do it again, this time tapping the dust piles - something that caused Pheromosa to pull back her claws. "Two rocks. Two rocks. Four rocks..." He repeated to himself aloud. "Two rocks. Slash. Two rocks. Line. Four rocks..."

Adrian gingerly reached out to a pile of unused rocks Pheromosa had gathered. He placed it down on the first pile, and waited, his gaze meeting Pheromosa though occasionally drifting to the pile of four rocks. Slowly the insectoid brushed a rock from the pile and brought it over to the four rock pile. She redrew her slashes, and her line. Three rocks, slash, two rocks, line, five rocks. Adrian in turn removed two rocks from the three rock pile and one from the two rock pile. Pheromosa in turn removed three from the five rock pile, and redrew her slashes and her line. One rock, slash, one rock, slash, two rocks. 

Over the next few minutes Adrian and Pheromosa took turns... shifting rocks. They didn't act much beyond that, an occasional 'hum' from Adrian and the sound of stone dragged over gravel being the only two things breaking the silence. They made all sorts of combinations with no apparent patterns, and within a few minutes the dust had quickly ran thin. But Adrian didn't need more. After probably ten minutes if not more of rock mixing, he stopped. He'd figured it out - he hoped.

"Two rocks. Slash. Two rocks. Line. Four rocks." He repeated to himself, though the current pile of rocks didn't align that way. "Two. Plus. Two. Equals. Four."

Pheromosa didn't understand those words. She didn't understand what a 'two' was, nor a 'four'. Or a 'plus', or an 'equals'. She didn't understand any word he said - she didn't speak english. She didn't speak at all. But she'd learned to get the gist from their many exchanges prior. Now Adrian in turn understood why she'd gathered all this. Why she'd been so frantic. "You can do math. You don't know all the concepts, you can't multiply. Of course, multiplication doesn't happen in nature like 'two piles of two rocks coming together to make four' does. But... you understand." Adrian said, feeling rather smart, while hoping he hadn't extrapolated intelligence from what was actually some absurd mating ritual. "Maybe it's some sort of... sense that I don't understand. That human science doesn't understand. Maybe you're some interplanetary empath bug. But I... think you could tell what I meant, from my tone. And from how I've spoken before. Maybe you have some vague understanding of english from us talking all the time. It's not like you have much else to think about..."

"And I think I might... be able to teach you."

Pheromosa's expression softened. Her duress had given way to curiosity and 'thought' when they'd started shifting rocks to make makeshift math sums, and that had just given way to... relaxation? Contentedness? Something like that. It seemed she felt alright, and hadn't jittered in minutes; something that she hadn't accomplished for weeks since this whole homing period began. Adrian thought maybe she'd recovered. A strong spasm caused her to fall forward and kick up the dust they'd been slashing - as well as create a *very* hard to solve sum - as she caught herself. Once again, twitching on her elbows and knees. Adrian sighed, reaching out and brushing her cheek with no hesitation whatsoever - she rubbed against it gently. She was in a better state than she was before, but she still needed time for this whole migration period to be over with. Adrian couldn't stay in this chamber with her all the time... she had to stay in here. She was a specimen... needed to be studied in controlled conditions...

"Oh hell to it."

Adrian stepped up the metal stairs and unlocked the door. He wouldn't be closing it once he'd stepped through. He would keep the door past the observation pod closed of course, but she could make a mess of his desk all she wanted; she'd earned that. As he climbed up the stairs to make his exit for the day, he couldn't help but ponder the manner of things. Things weren't how they seemed. He'd taken Pheromosa as just another animal; a strange, otherworldly and surely unique animal who deserved everything any other creature did. But an animal nonetheless. But she wasn't. She could be... intelligent. Resourceful and clever even. Beyond that she could be panicked, calm, and she almost always wore that... expression. Moved in that way. At first, Adrian thought it was just lethargy. But really, it was just reservedness. A noble, beautiful creature she was.

He jumped slightly at a quiet scuttling. Looking over his shoulder as he stood in the doorway to the observation pod, he saw Pheromosa. She was on all fours down near the base of the stairs - she was trying to scoop up the foamy pink candy she'd knocked from his hands before. Or, what was left of it. Her eyes - only a few inches above the stone floor - gazed over to him and her body froze. They held eye contact for a moment. Adrian smiled. Reserved, noble, and beautiful indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> While I was hoping to get all parts done before 2021, the final part required more time to be of appropriate quality. Instead I'll post some parts now, on new years eve.


End file.
